Sales engine for SMEs – This is how Marketing Automation boosts your business.

The name suggests it already: Marketing Automation is about automating marketing processes. In principle, wherever possible. The focus is on the following three goals: increasing sales, reducing costs and improving service quality. Thus, goals that partly compete. Because service and advertising are usually associated with costs first. But it really is like this: Marketing Automation allows you to kill several birds with one stone. And that is precisely why the topic is interesting for almost every company.

The principle

Only through the modern, digital media Marketing Automation (MA) is even possible. The combination of modern IT and online media makes it possible to deliver individual advertising messages to the addressee in fractions of a second. So the highest level of MA is one-to-one communication: delivering the right message at the right time in the right place.

This does not mean that personal contact with the customer is reduced – thus customer communication becomes more impersonal. The opposite is true: client advisors have more time for really difficult consultations – and for one or the other small talk with customers.

The advantages

The personal contact with the customer is undoubtedly irreplaceable. Nonetheless, in many ways, digital communication is far superior:

  • Speed: With modern technology, thousands of customers can be provided with a personalized advertising message within seconds and react easily.
  • Scalability: Unexpected load spikes are rarely a real problem for digital platforms. For a call center, however, rather.
  • Multimedia: Web and e-mail not only deliver text and images, but also interactive videos or complex apps.
  • Error minimization: Mistakes are human. Who has not forgot to edit a lead? A sophisticated software, however, forgets nothing and logs every step.
  • Measuring success: Unlike in classic advertising, it is relatively easy to measure which sales result from a campaign.
  • Cost: Marketing Automation is not free. During operation, however, there are contact costs that can be less than 1 cent, if the contact volume is large enough.

Possible applications

MA in Lead Management

According to a study by SiriusDecisions, 80% of all inquiries are not handled by sales. Others, on the other hand, are far too late and not given adequate attention. What is missing in most companies is professional lead management, which links sub-processes such as lead nurturing, lead scoring and reporting.

One must not forget: Customers are at the moment of the inquiry with their attention to 100% with the offerer. A unique opportunity. A few minutes later, the attention is probably somewhere else again – probably the competitor.

MA for customer service

Services vary widely depending on product and industry. At the core, it is very often about providing customers with useful information so that they can make the most of the service they have acquired and remain a loyal customer.

To provide accurate information at the right time, MA is a well-suited tool. For example, reminder e-mails can be sent automatically shortly before an important (maintenance) appointment. Or a customer receives an email with relevant manuals and a customized video tutorial because he clicked a link in a previous support email.

MA for direct marketing

Sending e-mail for direct marketing purposes is still very popular. The full potential of this marketing tool has rarely been exhausted. Thus, the transaction history or the click behavior is rarely used in the personalization of the advertising message. The same applies to the stage in the customer life cycle, which can be characterized by very different needs.

Promotional campaigns are suitable for certain customer segments. For example, for customers who have been inactive for a long time and need to be reactivated. Digital coupons can be perfectly personalized and equipped with a scannable barcode. These are therefore well suited for stationary trade.

MA for event management

Company events have lost nothing in attractiveness. Whether internal training, celebrations or lectures for potential customers – social exchange strengthens the team spirit internally and gives companies a face to the outside world.

Organizing events can automate many processes. In particular, the registration and quota administration. Personalized e-mails have long been proven for invitations and registration. Customers appreciate the convenient registration with a few mouse clicks. If the quota is exceeded, both the customer and the organizer receive notification. This avoids unpleasant overbooking.

Registered customers will be reminded of the appointment by e-mail shortly before the event and will receive directions or an agenda as a PDF.

MA for customer surveys

In surveys, many people (rightly) think of endless forms that rob you of the last nerve. Surveys can also be subtly submitted and consist of a single question. After all, every customer feedback can ultimately provide valuable information.

In particular, information is generated in surveys that are automated immediately after a transaction, such as a purchase, a booking, or a support case.

In the MA online surveys are a building block for generating valuable information about the needs of customers. They are saved and help to optimize the offer and the approach.

Combination of measures

Because at the core there is a single database, measures can be seamlessly combined. For example, a lead management contact becomes a customer, receives the newsletter, and receives the invitation to a customer event. After registration and participation, he receives the invitation to a short online survey, again by e-mail. He complains about parking problems at the venue and receives as a small compensation by e-mail a voucher.

Marketing Automation can be used to set up countless processes of this kind. The effort is manageable – the benefits enormous.

Special features of medium-sized companies

In principle, marketing automation is just as well suited for small and medium-sized enterprises as it is for corporations. Decisive is less the size of a company, but much more the buying process in the business model. The following rule applies here: The tighter the process, the easier it is to automate processes.

Decisive are the following questions:
  • Is the offered service in need of explanation?
  • Do different people / departments need to be convinced to make a decision?
  • Are the repurchase cycles relatively long?
  • Do you want to inform potential customers online?
Marketing Automation is better suited to selling a machine that requires explanation than selling printer cartridges.

 As always: It depends!

Such complementary goods may want to co-sell or reorder customers. Again, marketing automation can help.Medium-sized companies have the advantage that their processes in the overall context of the company are more manageable.In addition, the IT landscape is often more modern and characterized by established standard solutions. Well-known examples are Salesforce, Sage or Microsoft CRM.

On the other hand, the budgets for marketing and IT in small businesses are, by their very nature, rather limited.

Requirements for the successful introduction of Marketing Automation

Like any IT project, the introduction of marketing automation can fail. Technical failures, cost explosions, lack of acceptance by employees etc. are not uncommon. In essence, there are three key factors to successful launch:

  • Preparation of a technical concept.
  • Selection of a suitable platform.
  • Implementation based on a rollout plan.
Creation of a professional concept.

The quality of the concept decisively determines the success of the marketing automation. Only a complete and precise description of the target system makes it possible to detect errors in good time

The very first step is to consider what the process from lead to buy looks like. Where exactly are the contact points? When does the (potential) customer need which information? What decisions does he have to make?

The status quo should, however, be called into question. Maybe there is an even more comfortable way for the customer. So customer data should only be queried if they are actually needed and not yet available. Also media breaks are to be avoided if possible.

Describe the new system model should be described as precisely as possible. For a formal system description, a modeling language is recommended, for example UML (Unified Modeling Language). Incidentally, the visualization helps to detect errors and streamline processes.

When modeling, technical restrictions or other restrictions should not play a role. Blinders rarely lead to the optimal solution.

Selection of a suitable platform.

Small and medium-sized enterprises need a platform that meets the following requirements in particular:

  • Focus on required functionalities: Market-leading platforms have a powerful range of functions. But much of it is irrelevant to small and medium-sized businesses and adds complexity unnecessarily. It is primarily important that the processes from the technical concept can be implemented and extended without restrictions.
  • Set on standards: The platform should be externally hosted (SaaS = "Software as a Service") and can be docked to common CRM systems. A flexible and well documented API is indispensable.
  • Easy to use: MA platforms are often characterized by an enormous training effort. However, this should be reduced to a minimum for cost reasons alone.
  • Hosting: The MA platform provider should be located within the EU or host its data within the EU. This is especially true given the fact that the so-called "Safe Harbor Agreement" between the EU and the US has been invalidated.
  • CSA certification: Anyone who sends e-mails to German-speaking countries should urgently use e-mail servers with a CSA certification. While this is not the last word in wisdom, it does significantly reduce the risk of emails landing in the spam folder of the recipient.
  • License and service costs: The license costs of mature MA platforms are usually worth every penny. Costly, however, is often the setup, maintenance or integration of individual HTML templates.
Implementation based on a rollout plan.

Once the Marketing Automation platform is up and running, templates and processes need to be prepared. For example, a lead management or a reactivation e-mail for customers who have not bought anything for more than 6 months.

Inspiring customers on the Internet is more difficult today than it was 10 years ago. Dialogues in the sales process must necessarily comply with professional standards. Text and visual appearance are therefore better prepared by experts. Templates for the dialogues must be produced in such a way that they look perfect on the relevant end devices.

When creating the processes, it is important to orient oneself consistently to the technical concept. Deviations can lead to serious problems in the overall context.

Finally, each individual process is subjected to a detailed test phase. Here it helps to play through every imaginable scenario. Modern platforms often allow for a special test mode for evaluating processes, e.g. to wait one week for an automatic follow-up e-mail. Are all contacts recorded correctly? Do the sub-processes start correctly and completely? Are there dead ends or even endless loops?

After the live circuit, it is important to keep a close eye on the detailed process logs. After a certain period of time, a regular look at the key performance indicators is enough.